“The Empathy Deficit”
In December 2006, the then Senator for Illinois, Barack Obama, described how a country must overcome a deficit in empathy to address the needs of those at risk in society.
6 years later philosopher Roman Krznaric built on this, calling for a new era and the need to move from a world of introspection to a worldview of ‘outrospection‘. He stated the medium for this as empathy.
Fast forward to 2017 and Andrew Halls, Headmaster of King’s College School London, says that the younger generation are increasingly becoming ‘phone fixated’ and ‘me-focused’. He has highlighted this deficit in empathy in children and has introduced lessons specifically to teach empathy at his school.
Andrew Halls and King’s College School are embarking on a Pastoral Conference, convening over a 100 other Heads and educators to address this widening gap in empathy. The ‘Mind the Gap! Tackling the empathy deficit in schools and colleges’ conference being held this week at King’s has attracted emerging research from Dr Sara Konrath and other expert speakers ranging from Professor Tanya Byron, Dr Cat Sebastian, Michael Frayn, Dr Tom Harrison and Jo Berry.
Empathy Action will play a role at the conference, showcasing ‘The Poverty Trap’ slum simulation with 100 year 7 & 8 students, allowing the conference delegates to experience empathy teaching in action.
Teaching empathy has been described as:
a crucial mission for our times”
In a selfie obsessed generation, more and more people are beginning to see the vital role empathy plays in deepening understanding in students.
Co founders Matthew Gurney and Ben Solanky founded Empathy Action with a similar view, that empathy must be redeemed in a world saturated and numbed with mass information.
Matthew shared the crucial role of empathy in humanitarian work at the UN World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul 2016, and more recently at the Global People’s Summit.
Empathy Action are not the only group teaching empathy. An emerging cohort of organisations are also proactively pursuing this mission.
If you are interested to find out more or book a simulation please get in touch.
